Excerpt
from Despite Negativity, Americans Mixed
on Ideal Role of Gov't
“A majority of Americans (56%) say they would be willing to pay less in
taxes and accept fewer services, rather than either leaving things as they are
now or paying more taxes for more services.
This
supports the general position of some conservatives and libertarians, including
GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul. They argue that citizens should want their
government to do less, and thus collect fewer taxes. Liberals, on the other
hand, have focused on the value of the services the government provides,
particularly in terms of creating jobs and providing a social safety net, and
the necessity of keeping tax revenue flowing in order to fund those services.
Fewer than half of Americans, however, currently want to keep or add to the
level of taxes and services they have now.
As
would be expected, 81% of Republicans would opt for reduced taxes and fewer
services, as would 58% of independents. Democrats have more mixed reactions,
but about two-thirds would either keep things as they are now (36%) or would
opt for more services and more taxes (30%).”
This passage shows the results
of when Americans were asked would you rather have more government services if
that meant more taxes, less government services in order to reduce taxes, or
services and taxes as about we have them now.
Most Americans were willing to pay less taxes in exchange for fewer
services. That means that most were not happy with the way things are and
didn’t want to pay more taxes to get more services. This thinking is more in
line with the Republican conservative agenda. Republicans as expected wanted
reduced taxes and fewer services as well as most Independents. The majority of
Americans wanting to pay less taxes in turn accepting fewer services is partly
due to the Democratic Party’s mixed reaction to this question with
approximately 36% choosing to keep things as they are now and 30% opting for more
services and more taxes.
Americans find it hard to be
confident in our government structure and political leadership because we are
so unhappy with the state of the economy.
With Americans being so unhappy with our financial state they are less
inclined to give more money to the government. However there are still some people
like myself who, even though aren’t we secure with our financial state, still
recognize the need for the services these taxes provide. Especially for those
citizens who are less fortunate. In times like these cutting back on services
just create more problems. Like an increase in crime and homelessness. Many of
the negatives views of government trickle down to issues we the people have
with political issues and leaders. It is worth mentioning that the survey was
taken during the time Obama was president and a whopping 81% of Republicans
opted to reduce taxes. I feel that with the United States being such a powerful
nation we need to show more of a united front when it comes to domestic matters.
We need to support good programs and offer services to those who need them.
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